Editing Bakelite (section)

==History==
The reaction between phenol and aldehyde was first reported in 1872 by [[Adolf von Baeyer]], though its use as a commercial product was not considered at the time.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chemistry-online.com/organic-chemistry/named-reactions/bakelite-process/ | title=▷ Bakelite process | date=February 14, 2023 }}</ref>

[[Leo Baekeland]] was already wealthy due to his invention of Velox [[photographic paper]] when he began to investigate the reactions of [[phenol]] and [[formaldehyde]] in his home laboratory. Chemists had begun to recognize that many natural resins and fibers were [[polymer]]s.{{Source?|date=December 2024|reason=way too early}} Baekeland's initial intent was to find a replacement for [[shellac]], a material in limited supply because it was made naturally from the secretion of [[lac insect]]s (specifically ''[[Kerria lacca]]''). He produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called [[Novolak]], but it was not a market success,<ref name="Landmark"/> even though it is still used to this day{{cn|date=March 2025}} (e.g., as a [[photoresist]]).

He then began experimenting on strengthening wood by impregnating it with a synthetic resin rather than coating it.<ref name="Landmark"/> By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and formaldehyde, he produced a hard moldable material that he named Bakelite, after himself<ref name="time" >{{cite magazine
| last = Amato | first = Ivan
| title = Leo Baekeland
| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = March 29, 1999
| url = http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/baekeland.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000407201944/http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/baekeland.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = April 7, 2000
}}</ref><ref name="History">{{cite web
| title = Leo Baekeland
| work = Plastics
| date = June 28, 2000
| url = http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/plastic.htm
}}</ref> and the heat curing process it required. It was the first synthetic [[thermoset]]ting plastic produced, and Baekeland speculated on "the thousand and one&nbsp;... articles" it could be used to make.<ref name="Meikle"/>{{rp|58–59}} He considered the possibilities of using a wide variety of filling materials, including cotton, powdered bronze, and slate dust, but was most successful with wood and asbestos fibers,<ref name="Meikle"/> though [[asbestos]] was gradually abandoned by all manufacturers in the latter quarter of the 20th century due to stricter environmental laws.<ref name="fundermax.at">{{cite web |url=https://www.fundermax.at/fileadmin/redakteure/user_upload/Exterior_Technik_2020_GB_web.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.fundermax.at/fileadmin/redakteure/user_upload/Exterior_Technik_2020_GB_web.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Technique Exterior |publisher=Fundermax |date=December 2020 |access-date=24 May 2022}}</ref>{{rp|9}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.asbestos123.com/news/asbestos-in-vintage-products/#:~:text=However%2C%20vintage%20Bakelite%20telephones%20contain,subsequently%20be%20inhaled%20and%20ingested | title=The Risk of Asbestos Exposure from Vintage Products &#124; Asbestos 123 }}</ref>

Baekeland filed a substantial number of related patents.<ref name="Landmark"/> Bakelite, his "method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde", was filed on July 13, 1907, and granted on December 7, 1909.<ref name="Patent942699">{{US patent reference
| number= 942699
| issue-date=December 7, 1909
| inventor= Leo H. Baekeland
| title= Method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde
}}</ref> He also filed for patent protection in other countries, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and Spain.<ref name=Mercelis>{{cite journal|last1=Mercelis|first1=Joris|title=Leo Baekeland's Transatlantic Struggle for Bakelite: Patenting Inside and Outside of America|journal=Technology and Culture|year=2012|volume=53|issue=2|pages=366–400|url=https://www.academia.edu/4217504|access-date=February 23, 2015|doi=10.1353/tech.2012.0067|s2cid=145724031}}</ref> He announced his invention at a meeting of the [[American Chemical Society]] on February 5, 1909.<ref>{{cite news
| title=New Chemical Substance
| work=[[The New York Times]]
| date=February 6, 1909
| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/02/06/101025892.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/02/06/101025892.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live
}}</ref>

[[File:First Semi-commercial Bakelizer 1935 Bakelite Review Silver Anniversary p6.tif|thumb|upright |The first semi-commercial Bakelizer, from Baekeland's laboratory, 1935]]

Baekeland started semi-commercial production of his new material in his home laboratory, marketing it as a material for electrical insulators. In the summer of 1909, he licensed the continental European rights to Rütger AG. The subsidiary formed at that time, Bakelite AG, was the first to produce Bakelite on an industrial scale.

By 1910, Baekeland was producing enough material in the US to justify expansion. He formed the General Bakelite Company of [[Perth Amboy, New Jersey]], as a U.S. company to manufacture and market his new industrial material, and made overseas connections to produce it in other countries.<ref name="Landmark"/>

The Bakelite Company produced "transparent" cast resin (which did not include [[Filler (materials)|filler]]) for a small market during the 1910s and 1920s.<ref name="Bijker"/>{{rp|172–174}} Blocks or rods of [[casting process|cast]] resin, also known as "artificial amber", were machined and carved to create items such as [[Tobacco pipe|pipe stems]], [[cigarette holders]], and [[jewelry]].<ref name="Bijker"/><ref name=Ellis2>{{cite book|last1=Ellis|first1=Carleton|title=Synthetic resins and their plastics|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.45132|date=1923|publisher=The Chemical Catalog Co.|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.45132/page/n166 164]–165}}</ref> However, the demand for molded plastics led the company to concentrate on molding rather than cast solid resins.<ref name="Bijker">{{cite book|chapter=The Fourth Kingdom: The Social Construction of Bakelite|pages=101–198|last1=Bijker|first1=Wiebe E.|title=Of bicycles, bakelites, and bulbs: toward a theory of sociotechnical change|date=1997|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=9780262522274|edition=1st MIT Press pbk|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IsbmwN8-m1cC&pg=PA138|access-date=September 2, 2015}}</ref>{{rp|172–174}}

The Bakelite Corporation was formed in 1922 after patent litigation favorable to Baekeland, from a merger of three companies: Baekeland's General Bakelite Company; the Condensite Company, founded by J. W. Aylesworth; and the [[Redmanol Chemical Products Company]], founded by [[Lawrence V. Redman]].<ref name=aice>{{cite book|author=[[American Institute of Chemical Engineers]] Staff|title=Twenty-Five Years of Chemical Engineering Progress|publisher=Ayer Publishing|year=1977|page=216|isbn=978-0-8369-0149-8}}</ref> Under director of advertising and public relations Allan Brown, who came to Bakelite from Condensite, Bakelite was aggressively marketed as "the material of a thousand uses".<ref name="Meikle"/>{{rp|58–59}}<ref name=PlasticsArticle>{{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Allan|title=Bakelite – What It Is|journal=Plastics|date=1925|volume=1|issue=1|pages=17, 28–29}}</ref> A filing for a [[trademark]] featuring the letter B above the [[infinity symbol]] was made August 25, 1925, and claimed the mark was in use as of December 1, 1924. A wide variety of uses were listed in their trademark applications.<ref name=PlasticsTate>{{cite journal|last1=Tate|first1=A. C.|title=The Protective Power of a Good Trade Mark|journal=Plastics|date=1925|volume=1|issue=2|page=53}}</ref>

[[File:Bakelite color chart 1924 Gifts to Treasure Embed Art Company Jewel only.tif|thumb | Color chart for Bakelite "jewel" quality colors (cast resin or "Clear Material"), 1924]]

The first issue of ''Plastics'' magazine, October 1925, featured Bakelite on its cover and included the article "Bakelite – What It Is" by Allan Brown. The range of colors that were available included "black, brown, red, yellow, green, gray, blue, and blends of two or more of these".<ref name=PlasticsCover>{{cite journal|title=Cover Illustration|journal=Plastics|date=1925|volume=1|issue=1}}</ref> The article emphasized that Bakelite came in various forms.

{{quote|Bakelite is manufactured in several forms to suit varying requirements. In all these forms the fundamental basis is the initial Bakelite resin. This variety includes clear material, for jewelry, smokers' articles, etc.; cement, for sealing electric light bulbs in metal bases; varnishes, for impregnating electric coils, etc.; lacquers, for protecting the surface of hardware; enamels, for giving resistive coating to industrial equipment; Laminated Bakelite, used for silent gears and insulation; and molding material, from which are formed innumerable articles of utility and beauty. The molding material is prepared ordinarily by the impregnation of cellulose substances with the initial "uncured" resin.<ref name=PlasticsArticle/>{{rp|17}}
}}

In a 1925 report, the United States Tariff Commission hailed the commercial manufacture of synthetic [[phenolic resin]] as "distinctly an American achievement", and noted that "the publication of figures, however, would be a virtual disclosure of the production of an individual company".<ref name=Tariff>{{cite book|last1=United States Tariff Commission|title=Census of dyes and of other synthetic organic chemicals|date=1925|publisher=U. S. Tariff Commission|location=Washington, D. C.|page=59|volume=34|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfhIAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA4-PA59|access-date=August 31, 2015}}</ref>

In the UK, Bakelite Limited, a merger of three British phenol formaldehyde resin suppliers (Damard Lacquer Company Limited of [[Birmingham]], Mouldensite Limited of [[Darley Dale]] and Redmanol Chemical Products Company of [[London]]), was formed in 1926. A new Bakelite factory opened in [[Tyseley]], Birmingham, around 1928.<ref name=Travis>{{cite book|editor-last1=Travis|editor-first1=Anthony S.|title=Determinants in the evolution of the European chemical industry : 1900–1939 : new technologies, political frameworks, markets and companies|date=1998|publisher=Kluwer Acad. Publ.|location=Dordrecht|isbn=9780792348900|page=180|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gvP7CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA180|access-date=August 27, 2015}}</ref> It was the "heart of Bakelite production in the UK" until it closed in 1987.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Reboul |first1=Percy |title=Pioneers of plastics |journal=Interdisciplinary Science Reviews |date=1998 |volume=23 |issue=2 |page=173 |doi=10.1179/isr.1998.23.2.169 |bibcode=1998ISRv...23..169R |url=https://doi.org/10.1179/isr.1998.23.2.169 |access-date=13 June 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A factory to produce phenolic resins and precursors opened in [[Bound Brook, New Jersey]], in 1931.<ref name="Meikle"/>{{rp|75}}

In 1939, the companies were acquired by [[Union Carbide|Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation]].

In 2005, German Bakelite manufacturer Bakelite AG was acquired by Borden Chemical of Columbus, Ohio, now [[Hexion]] Inc.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20041025/NEWS/310259976/borden-chemical-buys-bakelite-from-rutgers|title=Borden-Chemical-buys-Bakelite-from-Rutgers &#124; Plastics News|date=January 6, 2013 |accessdate=February 16, 2024}}</ref>

In addition to the original Bakelite material, these companies eventually made a wide range of other products, many of which were marketed under the brand name "Bakelite plastics". These included other types of cast phenolic resins similar to [[Catalin]], and [[urea-formaldehyde resins]], which could be made in brighter colors than {{Soft hyphen|poly|oxy|benzyl|methylene|glycol|anhydride}}.<ref name=CookSlessor/><ref name="Meikle">{{cite book|title=American Plastic: A Cultural History|url=https://archive.org/details/americanplasticc00meik|url-access=registration|last1=Meikle|first1=Jeffrey L.|date=1995|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick, NJ|isbn=978-0-8135-2235-7}}</ref>

Once Baekeland's heat and pressure patents expired in 1927, Bakelite Corporation faced serious competition from other companies. Because molded Bakelite incorporated fillers to give it strength, it tended to be made in concealing dark colors.<ref name="Meikle"/> In 1927, beads, bangles, and earrings were produced by the Catalin company, through a different process which enabled them to introduce 15 new colors. Translucent jewelry, poker chips and other items made of phenolic resins were introduced in the 1930s or 1940s by the Catalin company under the Prystal name.<ref name=Leshner>{{cite book|last1=Leshner|first1=Leigh|title=Collecting art plastic jewelry : identification and price guide|date=2005|publisher=KP Books|location=Iola, WI|isbn=978-0873499545|pages=11–13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vJomBfX6pqkC&pg=PA11|access-date=February 23, 2015}}</ref><ref name=Katz>{{cite book|last1=Katz|first1=Sylvia|title=Plastics : designs and materials.|date=1978|publisher=Studio Vista|location=London, Angleterre|isbn=9780289707838|page=65}}<!--|access-date=February 23, 2015--></ref> The creation of marbled phenolic resins may also be attributable to the Catalin company.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}